Carbon Farming
There’s a finite amount of carbon in the world. Some of it is in the atmosphere, some of it is locked up into solid forms, mostly as organic matter on Earth. Burning hydrocarbons is releasing vast amounts of ancient, stored carbon into the air. Locking it back down into organic matter is nature’s answer for this.
How do we do this? Simply by growing plants we are removing carbon from the atmosphere, for the moment anyway. But plants also build soil, and this is nature’s long-term soil-storage strategy. The lush grasslands of the world also host the deepest soils. By using techniques such as planned grazing, we can mimic nature’s grazing pattern and glean the benefit of carbon sequestration, which also yields better soil (and therefore better water quality), as well as a host of products like eggs, meat, milk, and wool.
Then think of a forest. A small community with a localized timber economy, a co-op saw mill, artisanal furniture-makers, craftworkers, etc. This is value-added carbon farming! A wooden table for instance probably represents one of the best examples of this; the carbon will be solidified for as long as someone appreciates and cares for it.
Techniques such as agroforestry (the combining of trees with other farm crops for additional yields and benefits), and in particular silvopasture (trees in a grazing system) have shown to have some of the most substantial carbon-sequestering benefits around.
A well-treed farm represents real security. High-value timber grown for retirement funds or to build the next generation’s housing, plenty of firewood on site, resilience in the face of drought or famon, soil-building, air-cleaning, water-infiltrating, wildlife-sheltering. Trees also transpire lots of water back into the atmosphere, helping cloud formation, encouraging rain, which infiltrates and builds more soil, which now holds more water and more carbon!
Many common California trees such as oaks produce pig-fattening acorns, which have historically been eaten by humans too. The cork oak tree produces fatty acorns that taste remarkably like sweet chestnuts. They also produce a thick and fire-retardant bark, which is used in the corking of wine. So many benefits from something that adds so much beauty to the landscape.
The drought problem (not enough water) and the climate problem (heating planet) are intimately connected in more ways than may seem obvious. Water and soil work to build each other if managed correctly. Water grows plants which build soil. Soil holds onto water so that is available to plants and doesn’t wash soil away. By slowing water down on it’s way to the ocean we are relieving our downstream neighbors of flooding hazards, letting our plants put carbon into the soil and water into the atmosphere to encourage rain. By building soil with various techniques we are also building the soil’s capacity to hold water.
We can help you get your land optimized to catch and store water, carbon, energy, and become more productive as a result.
How do we do this? Simply by growing plants we are removing carbon from the atmosphere, for the moment anyway. But plants also build soil, and this is nature’s long-term soil-storage strategy. The lush grasslands of the world also host the deepest soils. By using techniques such as planned grazing, we can mimic nature’s grazing pattern and glean the benefit of carbon sequestration, which also yields better soil (and therefore better water quality), as well as a host of products like eggs, meat, milk, and wool.
Then think of a forest. A small community with a localized timber economy, a co-op saw mill, artisanal furniture-makers, craftworkers, etc. This is value-added carbon farming! A wooden table for instance probably represents one of the best examples of this; the carbon will be solidified for as long as someone appreciates and cares for it.
Techniques such as agroforestry (the combining of trees with other farm crops for additional yields and benefits), and in particular silvopasture (trees in a grazing system) have shown to have some of the most substantial carbon-sequestering benefits around.
A well-treed farm represents real security. High-value timber grown for retirement funds or to build the next generation’s housing, plenty of firewood on site, resilience in the face of drought or famon, soil-building, air-cleaning, water-infiltrating, wildlife-sheltering. Trees also transpire lots of water back into the atmosphere, helping cloud formation, encouraging rain, which infiltrates and builds more soil, which now holds more water and more carbon!
Many common California trees such as oaks produce pig-fattening acorns, which have historically been eaten by humans too. The cork oak tree produces fatty acorns that taste remarkably like sweet chestnuts. They also produce a thick and fire-retardant bark, which is used in the corking of wine. So many benefits from something that adds so much beauty to the landscape.
The drought problem (not enough water) and the climate problem (heating planet) are intimately connected in more ways than may seem obvious. Water and soil work to build each other if managed correctly. Water grows plants which build soil. Soil holds onto water so that is available to plants and doesn’t wash soil away. By slowing water down on it’s way to the ocean we are relieving our downstream neighbors of flooding hazards, letting our plants put carbon into the soil and water into the atmosphere to encourage rain. By building soil with various techniques we are also building the soil’s capacity to hold water.
We can help you get your land optimized to catch and store water, carbon, energy, and become more productive as a result.
